RESUMO
La Isabela, the first European town in the New World, was established in 1494 by the second expedition of Christopher Columbus but was abandoned by 1498. The main motive for settlement was to find and exploit deposits of precious metals. Archaeological evidence of silver extraction at La Isabela seemed to indicate that the expedition had located and tested deposits of silver-bearing lead ore in the Caribbean. Lead isotope analysis refutes this hypothesis but provides new evidence of the desperation of the inhabitants of La Isabela just before its abandonment.
Assuntos
Chumbo/análise , Mineração/história , Prata , Sulfetos/análise , Arqueologia , História do Século XV , Humanos , Microscopia Eletrônica de Varredura , Índias OcidentaisRESUMO
Excavation at Taima-taima in 1976 recovered artifacts of the El Jobo complex in direct association with the butchered remains of a juvenile mastodon. Radiocarbon dates on associated wood twigs indicate a minimum age of 13,000 years before the present for the mastodon kill, a dating significantly older than that of the Clovis complex in North America. The El Jobo complex must have evolved independently in northern South America.
